These are a few of the stories you will find in this week's printed newspaper:

State aid sought for watermaster investigation

Utility discusses future rate increases

Lassen Community College honors Disability Awareness Month

Supervisors table Herlong property sale

Local resident wins Mini Miss California pageant

Community shows support for our wounded warriors

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014 — The residents of Lassen County and the city of Susanville enjoy a justly earned reputation for helping those in need. Last week the community’s largess reached far beyond the county line to offer assistance to Marine Cpl. Joshua Hotaling, a warfighter who lost both legs and part of his right hand in an improvised explosive device blast in Sangin, Afghanistan on May 13, 2011.

Several of the more than 100 participants at a Saturday, Oct. 4 fun run for Hotaling at Susanville Ranch Park noted while the wounded warrior is not a member of our local community, as a United States Marine wounded on the battlefield, he is, nonetheless, one of our own.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place April 5, kick-starting the construction of a new home for Hotaling in Loomis, California.

Newspapers are living, breathing family members

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014 — What do you care most about in life?

Most of us would put family at, or near, the top of such a list. Friends would be there. So would our jobs or businesses, our livelihoods. Our homes. Maybe our pets. Our hobbies and pastimes. Add in those around us: neighbors, the community, etc.

That’s our world, our sphere of influence. Whatever happens to those who inhabit that place in our hearts and lives means something to us.

Spend a day not complaining — I dare you

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 — Try not to complain for an entire day. Just try it.

It isn’t easy. I took my own challenge and didn’t realize how many times a day I open my mouth to complain until I tried to stop.

A comedian (I didn’t recognize his name) on Sirius Radio prompted this new self-awareness. He talked about how much Americans complain, especially when compared to people with real problems, such as genocide, war or famine.

He cited airline food as an example. We all complained about how terrible it was, but now that it’s virtually nonexistent, we all complain that there are no free in-flight meals. He was funny, but right, and during the next few hours I noticed how many times I managed to complain or was about to complain about something that I should be grateful for.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 — October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month — a public campaign that began in 1981 with a Day of Unity and then morphed into a month-long event in 1987.

Lassen County residents remember two incidents of domestic violence that still reverberate today — the March 1995 death of Lassen County Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Griffith, who was shot and killed responding to a domestic violence call in Ravendale, and the murder of Susanville Police Officer Robert McElrath, who was allegedly drugged and then murdered by his estranged wife and her boyfriend Jan. 1, 2011.

But domestic violence in our county reaches well beyond those two highly publicized cases.